Love in Sherwood Forest
by Athenais Penelope Clemence
Summary: This is an AU set after the S3 Finale. Robin Hood isn't killed by Isabella's poisoned dagger. Unbeknownst to Robin, Marian survives her seemingly mortal wound in the Holy Land and returns to Nottingham in a few days after the bloody siege. Robin and Marian are reunited on Earth, not in Heaven. Robin and Marian are deeply in love, romantic, happy, mischievous, and very amorous.
_The story was written to_ ** _celebrate the 26th of April 1192_** _– the anniversary of the rescue of the four men from hanging by Robin of Locksley._

 _This is a long one-shot about Robin Hood and Marian of Knighton, action is set after the S3 Finale._

 _Robin isn't killed by Isabella of Gisborne's poisoned dagger. Unbeknownst to Robin, Marian_ _survives her seemingly mortal wound in the Holy Land and returns to Nottingham in a few days after the bloody siege. Robin and Marian are reunited on Earth, not in Heaven. Robin and Marian are deeply in love with each other, romantic, happy, mischievous, and very amorous, and they finally consummate their marriage._

 _Undoubtedly and unfortunately, I don't own the characters and the show._

 _Hope you will enjoy the story._

 _Any reviews are appreciated. Constructive criticism is always welcome._

* * *

 **Love in Sherwood Forest**

The late afternoon in Sherwood Forest was quiet, soothing, and incredibly peaceful. The air was fresh, crisp, and clean, and the woods were on fire with shades of yellow, orange and red and brown. Every day the color became more vivid and deeper, as did the piles of fallen leaves. The sun was sinking below the trees, the sky was painted in hues of crimson and yellow, and stillness reigned in the ancient woodland. The trees stood still, and the forest streams, scattered sparsely here and there, didn't have a ripple anywhere on the surface.

Utter stillness of the woods, total absence of stir or motion of any kind in leaf or branch, mirrored silence inside a hunting lodge owned by the Huntingdon family, where Robin led Marian to from the outlaws' camp. It took them about an hour to get to this lodge. Twice, after traversing endlessly along serpentine forest paths, they found themselves back to the Great North Road, where they had begun; many years passed since Robin had been there before, and he had forgotten the way to this place. Robin called a halt to their explorations, but Marian remained unfaltering in her decision to spend night there. Finally, they extricated themselves from the maze of the woods, reaching their destination.

In the middle of the chamber, Robin Hood and Lady Marian stood staring at each other as if they were mesmerized by the rhythms of love pulsating in the air and in their hearts. Their figures silhouetted against the dull yellow flicker of the light from a dozen candles burning at a long table in one of the corners. There were also candles at each bedside table near a huge bed that dominated the far wall. Heavy gold and red silk bed hangings were piled haphazardly and carelessly on the floor; years ago taken down, forgotten, and moth-eaten; however, there were also fresh white satin sheets on the bed, which Marian had collected from Locksley Manor today, before coming to the lodge. There were two chairs placed near a hearth where a fire was burning merrily; against one of the walls was a marble-topped washstand with a layer of dust upon it.

Robin of Locksley smiled with an elegiac smile that revealed all of the mournful tears he had shed when he had believed her dead. "It feels amazing and incredible to be here with you. Yet, it feels unreal because I still cannot believe that you are alive." A half sob, half sigh escaped his lips and a nervous tremor rippled through him. "By the grace of God, you returned to me!"

Marian smiled at her husband, who was apparently worn out with sufferings and grief. Her smile was rich in goodness and affection for him. "I am alive, Robin! With God's blessing, I came back to you."

The last year was an agony for Robin Hood. At night, the hero had left the outlaws' camp and had come to the old tall oak where he had proposed to Marian for the second time after burying King Richard's one-legged messenger. In that place, he had slumped to his knees, cupped his face, and wept for the loss of his beloved wife – Marian of Knighton, his Marian. Recovering from the overpowering effusions of grief, he had wandered aimlessly in the forest and then had returned to the camp; he had forced himself to sleep – but sleep would never come. At day, Robin had been a rogue outlaw, smirking and mocking his foes, but beneath the mask he had been a tumultuous, despondent man knowing no saving relief in sob or tear. The pain from the loss of Marian had been burnt and seared into his soul like hot iron.

Now Marian was standing next to her husband, breathing and smiling at him affectionately, with a slow, breathtaking, and graceful smile. Dressed in brown breeches and her old blue tunic, which she had worn during the weeks of living with Robin in the woods, Marian was as arrestingly beautiful as a divine flower in full blossom and even more beautiful than Venus, the Roman goddess of love and beauty. Her beauty was as radiant as a thousand suns, and her smile was enough to unlock the harmony of the universe. Her long, dark hair had grown considerably, and, together with delicately sculptured features and her sapphire blue eyes, she was undeniably a tempting bundle of femininity. There was also some new ephemeral glow about her, as glorious as that of an angel, he reflected with a light heart. Yet, there was some peculiar hardness in her eyes which Robin had never seen in her before – a permanent imprint of death and grief.

Marian had survived by sheer miracle, as Djaq and King Richard's personal physician had said. It was true that a brokenhearted and devastated Robin Hood had carried his tragically deceased wife to a fresh grave which Much, Little John, and Allan had dug for the heroic lady who has saved the king and England that day. There, near the grave, Robin had collapsed on his knees and, taking Marian's body into his trembling arms, had broken into harrowing, heartrending sobs; the king and the rest of the world had been forgotten. The grief-stricken widower hadn't permitted his friends to bury Marian for about an hour; his sobs had continued unabated, developing into a deluge that could have drowned the world.

Touched to the innermost core, the king, and the others had allowed Robin some time and privacy to grieve. Talking to her seemingly lifeless frame, Robin had been shuddering in shock and grief, his soul and heart bleeding at every pore. At the same time, the outlaws had buried Carter – another hero of the day, murdered by Vaisey. But corpses couldn't remain unburied for hours under the rays of the Eastern pestilent and cruel sun. Much had been the only one who had finally been able to talk sense into the disconsolate man – they had needed to bury Marian. After a long grief-charged silence, Robin had looked at Much with hollow eyes; his answer had been a shake of head and words – _"I won't be able to watch her being put into the ground"._

Sympathetic with his friend's loss, the king had arranged that Marian would be buried by his guards, and Robin had left. But Marian hadn't died after she had removed Guy's sword from her belly: her heart had lost her consciousness from the shock which her body had sustained, and she had been taking shallow and irregular breaths which had been almost impossible to distinguish. Due to gross negligence of the king's guards, she hadn't been put to eternal rest until late afternoon, and one of the soldiers had noticed that her body hadn't cooled off. And then, during several months, there had been only darkness and pain in Marian's world as she had been fighting for her life, Robin's name on her lips like a prayer and Djaq's dulcet voice guiding her back to life. And the heroine had won the battle with death against all odds.

Marian, Will, and Djaq had been traveling from Acre with King Richard and the royal convoy, each of them disguised as pilgrims. Unfortunately, they had been wrecked by a violent storm on the coast of Cyprus and later near the shores of Aquileia, from where they had taken an inland route through central Europe and the territory of the Holy Roman Empire. The King of England wasn't felicitous on the way back home: Richard had been captured in one of the taverns near Vienna by Duke of Leopold of Austria's soldiers; Marian, Will, and Djaq were the only three persons who had narrowly escaped capture. After journeying to Aquitaine to notify Queen Eleanor of Aquitaine about her son's recent misfortunes, the exhausted travelers had headed to Nottingham to learn that Robin Hood and his men had won the siege despite the bloodbath in the town.

Marian had arrived in Nottingham, together with Will and Djaq, in a week after the bloody siege of Nottingham. Everyone had met her with faces of startled shock which quickly morphed into utter amazement and then into giddy happiness. Her return was a triumph of good forces over evil ones that were still shadowing the victory of Robin Hood and his merry men in the light of the losses they had incurred in the siege – the deaths of Allan and Guy. Vaisey, Isabella were dead, killed by the explosion of the Byzantine fire, but it seemed that the parade of Saran and his cohorts spewing destruction and death wasn't finished because Prince John had dispatched a new sheriff to Nottingham, one of the Black Knights.

Marian's reunion with Robin was immensely dramatic and emotional, watched by all of the outlaws. When she had seen her husband, the back-from-the-dead Robin Hood's wife irradiated happiness as she flung herself headlong into the arms of her shocked husband, who could only murmur her name under his breath and who called her a ghost of her dead wife. Only after Marian had touched Robin's face and looked into his tear-stained eyes, he locked her in an embrace of relief, happiness, and love, clinging to her like a drowning man and sobbing into her shoulder. Stunned by Robin's display of emotions, she had held him tight, feeling his tears melt against her bosom and kissing the top of his head, stroking his hair tenderly.

During the next few days, Robin and the outlaws busied themselves with making deliveries to Locksley, Clun, and other villagers in the shire. The leader of the outlaws frequently talked to his people, his speeches theatrical and inspiring everyone to fight for justice until the king's return. Robin's popularity skyrocketed, and he was viewed as _an invincible Herculean hero of the poor and downtrodden_ , who had defeated a huge army of Sheriff Vaisey's mercenaries and had eradicated evil in Nottinghamshire. Robin Hood had never been as famed and legendary as he became after the siege: he was viewed as a conqueror of the world – an indestructible, greatest, and strongest hero and the legend of the England.

However, Robin wasn't interested in glory at all. People coveting glory set themselves on the path of self-destruction, failing to comprehend that glory might be quickly cut down and taken away by crafty and stronger enemies – it was what Robin thought of glory. He told Marian that he didn't care about glory when she pointed out that he perhaps was even more popular and loved by the commoners and many nobles than King Richard, the celebrated warrior-king. The compliments give by his friends – Much, Little John, Will, Djaq, Tuck, and even Archer – were perceived by Robin for concealed arrows of ridicule, and peace always fled from his soul when he listened to any praising speeches about his heroics.

He eyed her admiringly. "Now I know that you are not a ghost, my darling." It was really _his Marian_! The richest gift that Heaven could bestow upon him was Marian's survival and return to him.

"And I am not going to leave you again, Robin."

"We are finally alone, my darling."

In the past few days, Marian and Robin didn't have a chance to spend time alone. After getting the message about the upcoming arrival of the new sheriff, the outlaws had to prepare for the new battle. When they were not making deliveries, they were sitting around the campfire, brooding in silence. The situation was complicated: they didn't know how long the king would be kept prisoner in Austria, and a new battle was looming on the horizon. Of course, Marian's return had pushed back the darkness that dissipated like a cloud of dust, but the outlaws couldn't forget Allan's death. An angry and depressed Kate returned to her mother in Locksley; tortured by twinges of conscience, Archer decided to join Robin's fight for justice.

Marian felt warmth fill her heart as Robin's startlingly blue, love-filled eyes met hers. "So, Robin?"

"Are you sure that you want this to happen today, Marian?" Robin asked in a throaty voice.

Marian nodded. Her face was open to him, her eyes unguarded. "Everything is a choice, and I choose to spend this night with my husband," she announced as she took a step to him. A sensual smile touched her full mouth. "We were apart for so long! I begin to lose patience, Robin."

She perused Robin with vivid interest. Her husband wore his old outlaw outfit – his dark green breeches, his muslin shirt of the same color, and his black leather jerkin. She couldn't repress a giggle at the thought that Robin had deliberately chosen boyish outfits to stress his youth, as he had once confided in her. She noticed that Robin had changed during the last year: he was the same handsome archer flashing taunting grins and cheeky smiles, but his attractively chiseled features lost some of their boyishness. He looked less carefree and was really tired, but there was the familiar mischievous twinkle in his eyes that made Marian smile – inwardly, if not outwardly – whenever she saw it. Robin's stubble seemed a little thicker, and his tousled hair of the wheat color was shorter than at the time of their marriage on her deathbed in Acre.

He tilted his head to one side, his eyes glowing. "Is a thought to be mine so tempting?"

"Yes, it is, Robin!" She smiled deplorably as she remembered nights when she had been gripped by terrible nightmares of Robin lying on the reddish-yellow sand, dying on a foreign battlefield. "I have been waiting for you for years! I waited for you to return from war, cloaked in a glory which you so craved to have. I waited for your love confession for so long, and I must thank Allan for his betrayal, as it wouldn't have happened if you didn't try to kill him." A slow, breathtaking her smile graced her beautiful face. "You should be ashamed of yourself! How many wives are so loyal to their betrotheds and husbands?"

Her heartfelt confession rendered Robin speechless, and all he could do was to stare into her eyes that were burning him with desire. A wealth of emotions – disbelief, amazement, surprise, relief, and happiness – was churning in him with too much strength. He opened his mouth to speak, but no words came out. He just stood like a statue trying to process his feelings, the strongest of them being an irrepressible, exquisite delight. He couldn't believe her words at first, feeling as if inside his brain were pulled, shutters moved, and he, having nothing to do with it, yet stood at the opening of many avenues with only one leading him to his Marian. He hadn't felt so happy for years; not since the day of his first proposal to her before the Crusade.

Robin had survived through hell in the Holy Land, where all what had surrounded him had been wrapped in a crimson veil disguising death, carnage, and destruction with meaningless glory. He had never imagined that she had waited for his return from the Holy Land, where he had dreamt of her during short breaks between bloody battles, fearing that he wouldn't see another sunset or sunrise. When he had been in fever after Guy had stabbed him in the Saracen attack, it had been Marian whom he had been begging for forgiveness and for leading him to Heaven. In that hellhole, where the innocence of his mind, heart, and soul had been buried among the desert dunes, Robin had needed Marian fiercely and desperately, like a child who could die without baptism being denied the supreme blessing of the beatific vision of God.

Robin grinned bashfully and spoke as he found his voice again. "And how many wives in the world may boast having a handsome and brave husband who saved the king, fought for the people, and defeated evil in England?" His eyes twinkled as bright as stars on a frosty night. He was teasing her in his usual manner, enjoying the moment immensely. "Doesn't a husband like me deserve loyalty and devotion from his wife?"

Her eyes flashed in anger. "Robin of Locksley, you will never change! One day you will pay!" She slightly narrowed her eyes and glared at him, but in a moment she smiled ever so slightly. "One day I will murder you with my own hands! What an irreparable loss it will be for England and the king!"

"Most importantly for you, _Marian of Locksley_ ," he said with a wide, insolent smile that irritated and infuriated all of his foes. He liked the sound of her new name – Marian of Locksley, his wife until his dying day, until the end of the world and forever in Heaven.

She pursed her lips. "I suppose so, my husband."

"I know this, my wife," Robin parried, laughing. The overconfidence in his tone made her frown at him, and he added, "By the way, I like when you look at me in anger. I can feel you, my love."

Marian smiled cordially. "Eight years, and you are still pedaling the same old drivel!"

He threw his head back and laughed, his laughter reverberating from the walls. He bent down to kiss her on the lips. The kiss was short and sweet, but it sealed the next minutes of our relationship – they were going to start a tease game. "You cannot deny that it works! My charms have never ceased working on you!"

"No, they haven't."

"Really, my love? Someone once told me very different things after my return from the Crusade."

"And someone was so arrogant and trying to be charming that he deserved to be deceived."

"Only to be deceived?" Robin closed the distance between them and wrapped his arms around her slender waist. "Doesn't this arrogant fool deserve to be kissed by a goddess of his dreams?"

Marian giggled. "This fool will deserve a kiss only if he behaves well."

Robin's lips stretched into a roguish grin. He kissed the tip of her nose. "My love, I know that you like when I am bad!" As a tide of burning desire for the beautiful creature in his arms coursed through him, he did what he had longed to do all morning. "Am I a fool?" he asked playfully. "Yes, I am a fool, and I need to grow up, as you say. But I am no more foolish than you, my darling. And fools like misbehaving!"

His mouth found hers, and he kissed her with passionate intensity, his lips possessive and hungry against hers. He was pulling her tighter against his body, and she trembled all over in the shelter of his strong arms. They were kissing as if they were young lovers just exploring the joy and excitement of new love – the love reborn after death in a heavenly form. Although it was in actuality about a few minutes as they stood in the middle of the room hugging and kissing, for them it was like an eternity, the flight beyond the curtain of stars, the worlds where the light from sun and moon don't fall due to some great distance.

Robin's kisses were becoming more urgent, each kiss igniting deeper hunger in them. Marian groaned, responding to his fierce, sensitive assault. As their tongues dueled together in a heated battle, he continued holding her in a vice-like grip, and she pressed herself to him, her hands running over his back and shoulders. There were too many layers of clothing between them, they thought with regret. As their passion was about to explode, Robin broke the kiss, pulled away, and took a step back, looking into her flushed face.

"What?" Marian grumbled, raising a quizzical brow.

"The torment of Tantalus, my love?" Robin let out a laugh and stepped back.

Marian was drugged by Robin's nearness, by the swift, unfurling needs of her own body, the fierceness of which was suspiring to her. They had often pushed the limits before that, but she had never wanted him more than she wanted him now. "You are impossible! You are infuriating!"

"Yes, I am! And you like this!" Regarding her as if she were a sweet cake he was planning on feasting on, he purred, "Marian, I love when you look at me possessed by desire. I love an angry Marian and a Marian who wants me as much as you want me now."

Marian felt her face heat with embarrassment, but she couldn't help but snicker at him. "You have become too conceited! Not all women must be at your feet and love you!"

After he had pulled away, he recovered control of himself. Yet, a new tide of desire thrummed in his blood, but he enjoyed the game he was playing. His eyes were dark and burning, so close to hers. "But my wife is definitely one of them!"

"No!" she cried out, poking him on the cheek playfully.

"Yes!" he exclaimed. "I am at your feet too! I have always been, and I will always be!"

"I believe you, handsome. You claim that I can look into your soul, and I think I can." Her throaty voice faltered as she struggled for speech but was too frantic to word the passion that burned in her.

"And what do you see?"

"I see what you want," she voiced her observation.

He chuckled. "You yourself offered to consummate our marriage."

"Yes, I did," she articulated, smiling. "We were so close to… _doing this_ before the voyage to Acre, but you always backed off when we could–" She broke off, and her face flushed in embarrassment.

"I couldn't dishonor you, my love. We were not married."

"We were betrothed," she pointed out.

He shook his head firmly. "I couldn't do this to you. I respect you and your father too much."

"But now we are married, and we still are where we were before Acre!"

Robin averted his gaze, staring into the flames and releasing a sigh. "The last two weeks were awful… The siege of Nottingham… Vaisey and his army… Isabella's treachery… The deaths of Guy and Allan…" He emitted a heavy sigh. "I blew up the castle and killed many people that night, but among them, only the sheriff, Isabella, and Blamire deserved to die. Others were only mercenaries." When he glanced back at her, there was an air of chasmal sadness around him, proclaiming his guilt for the deaths he had caused.

Feeling his distress and pain, Marian took a step towards him and almost dragged him into her arms. She whispered to him, "Try not to think about the siege, Robin. It is in the past."

Robin felt his breath caught. His heart was beating wildly in his chest. In her eyes, he could see Marian's soul and her love for him, and he gasped as her name slipped from his lips. "Marian," he whispered as he made a step to her. " _My Marian_ ," he said in a more sensitive undertone as he lifted a hand to her face and caressed her cheek.

"Robin," she murmured, feeling her heartbeat speed up. His mere touch set her on fire, and she was drunk with desire. " _My Robin_ …" She gave him a smile of such brightness, that all pearls in the world were dullness to its splendor.

Marian's brilliant smile and the desire in her enticing blue eyes made Robin feel as if he were on the heaven-kissed hills of paradise. A feeling of perfect blissfulness overwhelmed Robin, and his soul soared in the air, as if uplifted by the swirling updrafts of life's easy breathing which was throbbing all around him. Love for Marian filled his heart and entire being. To say that a feeling of love was in the air would be a complete understatement – Robin could feel the infinite love in his bones, in his veins, in his heart, in every fibre of his essence, and in his soul. He had never loved any other woman, even though he hadn't lived in celibacy while he had been away from England. Marian was one and the only keeper of Robin's heart, the love of his life, his most precious treasure, and his beloved wife.

He always knew that there was a great light in the world, and he never doubted that it was not for power and wealth that a man must live, but for justice and honor. Even though he had long realized that love was delight and happiness that no man can give, buy, or sell, and that it was beyond all value of all riches in the world, he had still chosen duty and glory over Marian, condemning them both to a five-year heartbreak. Even later, when he had escaped into the woods and their romance had been rekindled, Robin had thought of England, the king, and his people in the first place, again choosing his duty over his happiness with Marian and patiently waiting for the king's return. Marian had acted in the same way, thinking about the people and her duty to England more than about their personal interests.

Her death had come like a thunderbolt from a clear blue sky of Acre in its tragic suddenness. When she had breathed for what he had believed to be the last time, he had felt as if a sword had pierced his heart and the blade had been twisted in his flesh. Robin's world had been shattered into a million pieces, as if an edifice of justice, goodness, and peace, which he had been raising since his return from the Crusade, stone by stone, had crumbled under his hands.

"Keep fighting for me," Marian had requested, and Robin had pledged that he would continue his mission, but the greatest desire of his heart had been to die and be reunited with his wife in Heaven. But, unbeknownst to him, Marian's life had been spared by God, and she had come back to England alive. It was when a large wisdom came to the hero of the woods: Marian was everything to Robin, and he loved her more than England, the king, and the people. There was no light in his world without her!

Robin cupped Marian's face and looked steadily into her eyes. "Marian, I love you more than life itself, Marian," he confessed, his gaze warm, intimate, and alive with all-absorbing, nearly slavish devotion. "I have always loved you and only you – I have never stopped loving you. I dreamt of you in the Holy Land, and you were my only light in the crimson darkness that surrounded me from all sides. I survived only because I wanted to see you again, even though I didn't hope that you were waiting for me."

Tears were shimmering in Marian's eyes, but her eyes were not filled with pain – they were full of mirth. "I promised you that I would marry one of my suitors in your absence and would forget a fool who ran off to battle thousands of miles away." She smiled as his thumb gently brushed away tiny tears trickling down her cheek. "But how could I look at another man if I was tied to you by every beating of my heart?"

Tears of happiness stung his eyes. "My heart has always been beating for you. In Acre, I saw your face in my dreams, and a tiny shred of hope of having a chance to see you again kept me sane.

"When you were away, I was equally bereft and missing you as well. And I never lost hope that you would return, although I feared to get bad news about you from the Holy Land."

His face broke into a tender smile he had for only for her. "Dreams and thoughts of you helped me survive. You guided me back home!" A sigh fell from his lips. "But England didn't meet me well, and I escaped to the woods. When I fought for the king and the people, I also fought for you and for a better future we would have together. Every fight I fought was for you, and you gave me strength to fight and win."

"Together we are stronger," she spoke the same words which he had used to finish his second and most eccentric marriage proposal he had done to her many months ago. "Together we are happier."

Robin brought her hand to his lips and kissed it lightly and chivalry. "We belong together, Marian. We are meant to be together! That's why death couldn't take you from me! You came back to me!"

She nodded, sending him a watery smile. "Yes, Robin."

Looking into Robin's eyes, Marian could see the love emanating from his entire being. When he had left her, choosing war and glory over her and life with her, she had been sure that he had never loved her. She had thrown their engagement ring in his face, thinking that slipping the ring from her finger was enough to cut all of the emotional ties to her fiancé. She had heard rumors about his several affairs in Aquitaine, where he had stayed with the king for about six months before their departure to the Holy Land, which added bitterness to the heartbreak she had been suffering.

During the first few months after his departure, Marian had been not herself, keeping herself confined to her lonely bedchamber, refusing to eat despite her father's pleas, and living in a world of memories of her former betrothed. When rumors about the young Earl of Huntingdon's escapades had reached Nottingham, she had been enraged, hating Robin for abandoning her and for finding comfort in the arms of other women so soon. It wasn't a secret for her that Robin had had affairs before proposing to her, and she remembered him flirting with girls in Nottingham. But she had thought that he wouldn't start enjoying the pleasures of a bachelor's life so quickly after their break up!

Marian tilted her head to the right, looking at the man before her eyes with an appraising gaze. Robin was handsome and charming, and a brilliant conversationalist who always had a twinkle in his eye that made women wish to look into his eyes. His tongue was witty, and his blood was full of poisonous and romantic venom that poured out of him when words of passionate bravado tumbled from his lips. His charm was overpowering with his gorgeous blue eyes sparkling with mischief and his dazzling smile, and it entangled legions of women in its sticky, invisible web – Marian wasn't an exception. Robin Hood could charm as easily as his archery talent could impress everyone who saw his uncanny gift with a bow.

During the five long years of his service in the Holy Land, Marian had been determined to move on and forget Robin. For some time, she had truly believed that all Robin cared about was glory, hoping that his 'betrayal' of their love would kill her own love for her. Yet, every night she had stood on her knees and prayed for him, staring into solemn darkness with tears in her eyes, begging God to protect the man who had broken her young, tender heart. The thought of his death in a distant and hostile land was something Marian's mind and soul actively shied away from. As time was passing quickly, like sand leaking to the other side of an hour glass, but her love for Robin remained as strong as it had always been.

Marian continued looking at Robin, who was quite puzzled by her behavior. There was a silence in the room, punctuated only by the sound of the cracking fire in the hearth and by their ragged breathings. Red flames of passion were burning goldenly in Robin's heart, while Marian's passion was changing into a heat of jealousy and frustration as she thought of the women whom her husband had slept with when they hadn't been betrothed and, possibly, when he had believed that she had died in Acre.

Robin frowned. "My love, what happened?" he broke the silence. "Have I done something wrong?"

Marian shook her head. "Not today, Robin." She stepped back and gracefully settled herself on the bed, her eyes never leaving his face. "I have wanted to ask you one question since my return."

Robin was quiet for a moment, watching his wife in silence and listening to his own accelerated heartbeat. A muscle was flexing and unflexing in his jaw as an odd nervousness overcame him. What did she want to ask him? Marian looked distant, and all her playful demeanor was gone; there was also something in her face that made Robin shuffle his feet on the floor uncomfortably.

"Ask what you want." Robin came to a nearby chair near the hearth and seated himself there. "I will be honest with you."

As her eyes took in the nervous pallor of his face, she felt her heart constrict in her chest. She didn't want to unsettle him in any way. "We were so rarely honest with each other."

"Yes. It is true." His tone sounded somewhat depressed.

Robin turned his eyes to her and gave a doleful smile, his eyes full of affection. He was waiting for her to speak, and she saw in his eyes something more than honesty – she saw his sincere desire to be as honest with her as they had probably never been before. Robin didn't wear his heart on his sleeve, and his emotional reticence disgruntled and saddened Marian. Today, her husband had already opened up his heart to her, and she had learned how deep his affection for her always was. Now they could bring their relationship to a higher level of honesty, trust, and understanding, but they had to clear up some more things.

"Speak, my love. Or have my charms rendered you speechless?" There was a laugh in his voice.

"Of course not." She shot him an annoyed look, cursing him for looking more appealing than ever with that lustful gaze and the strands of sandy hair falling alluringly over his forehead. All she wanted was to gather him in her arms and kiss him, but she needed to know one thing. "Robin, tell me the truth." She paused, breathing deeply. "Did you have… something with Isabella and Kate?"

Robin regarded her thoughtfully for a long moment, his face revealing nothing. Then he released a sigh and stared past her as he spoke. "Nothing with Kate. I didn't want to hurt her when she began to seek my attention, but I never crossed the line. She kissed me twice, and I didn't push her away; nothing else."

"And Isabella?"she inquired in a tense voice.

He gave a dolorific sigh. "I am sorry, Marian." He swung his gaze back to her, and she could see the remorse and guilt plainly written all over his face. "At first, Isabella was helping me to work against Guy and Prince John. She seemed honorable and caring for the people." He swallowed heavily. "Her looks – her long, dark hair and her blue eyes – reminded me of you. She was Gisborne's sister, and I thought that I was taking someone from him like he… had taken you from me." He paused and sighed. "She seemed to be the closest thing I could get after your death. And I was desperate to try to forget my pain."

Jealousy stirred in Marian's heart, and she looked away. When she had heard about Kate and Isabella from an innocently chatting Much, she had been stunned and furious, feeling betrayed at the thought that her husband had been involved in some kind of relationship with another woman so soon after her death. Even before receiving a confirmation from Robin, she knew that he had tried to find consolation in the arms of Isabella or Kate or them both. She could understand him – he had tried to move on, thinking he had lost her in the death-suffused sandy dunes of Acre. Having calmed down, she decided that she wouldn't begrudge him for his infidelity, but it didn't mean that it wasn't a sore spot in her heart.

"I see," she said, her eyes focused on the undraped window. The sun had already disappeared beneath the orange crowns of trees, and outside a cold wind began to blow, swaying branches of the trees and shaking the stubbornly clinging leaves left loose to drift down and settle on the ground.

"I am sorry," he repeated in such a broken voice that she immediately looked back at him.

The vulnerable and guilty look on Robin's face pulled at her heartstrings, and she offered him a smile. "I am not going to quarrel with you. I don't like it, but I can understand you."

Hope stirred in his heart, and he enquired, "You can?"

"I can understand, but that doesn't mean that you are forgiven, Robin."

Marian nodded, blushing slightly, for she wasn't accustomed to talking about such intimate things. Yet, she was immensely grateful to him for his honesty. She knew that he had been suffering in her absence – she could see the imprint of his sufferings and pain in his pain-filled eyes when he put off his mask of a cheeky rogue, and in a few new lines of worry under his eyes. She didn't doubt Robin's love for her, but she was frustrated. When she had died, she hadn't expected him to be faithful to her forever, but she had hoped, selfishly, that he would remain out of a relationship of any kind any woman as long as possible.

"It is your usual way," she said aggrievedly, disappointment creeping into her voice. "You seek forgetfulness by… being with other women. You did the same twice: you had affairs in Poitou before joining the Crusade, and you needed… distraction after my death."

Robin hung his head. "When you broke our betrothal, I was young and foolish. I was sure that you hated me because we didn't part on good terms: you promised to marry another man, and I was heartbroken. I wanted to… forget you." He sighed, still not looking at her. "After your death, I didn't want to live, but I had to live for the lads and for our people… Everything was so dark in my life."

"Robin," Marian called. "I know what you mean. There was only darkness in my life without you."

He glanced at her. "You do hate me, don't you?" There was a slight touch of fear in his voice.

Marian saw Robin's many facets. Once he had been an arrogant, pampered, and spoiled heir to the rich Earldom of Huntingdon who had teased her in childhood, who had taken Much and her on adventures to Sherwood, and how had taught her to use a bow and a sword. He had been the man who had broken her heart and had left her for glory, but he also was the man who had never stopped loving her as he had confessed. After his return from Acre, Robin had become Robin Hood, a noble freedom-fighter and a savior of England, the king, and the poor and oppressed, the man whom she always loved despite all his faults and mistakes. But now, he was only her Robin, her husband, her lover, and her best friend.

Marian smiled cordially at him, her heart melting at the sight of fear and vulnerability on his face. "No," she responded. "I know that you were faithful to me when we were betrothed before the Crusade, when you returned and tried to charm your way back to my heart with your rugged looks and your clumsy metaphors of love, and also when we became betrothed after your apprehensive proposal over a fresh grave."

Robin rose from the chair, walked to the bed, and seated there next to her. He took his hands in his, and she laced her fingers with his. "You are correct, Marian," he began. "I was faithful to you when we were together. You are the only woman who has ever meant something to me – you are _the love of my life_. My eyes see and love only you, and this will never change."

It was her turn to say the sacred words which meant to her more than anything else in the world. "Robin, I love you so much," she murmured as she gazed warmly into his eyes. "I have loved you since I was a girl of twelve. I have been in love with you practically from the first moment when you laid eyes on me and flashed me that cheeky smile of yours that made my heart leap with joy. I loved you even when you broke my heart and left me for war. I loved you even more than you returned and got yourself outlawed, because you proved that you cared for the people. I have always loved you, and I have never wanted to marry another man!"

Many things changed in Marian's life, but there had always been one constant – her love for Robin. Since their first meeting, she didn't remember a day in her life when she didn't love the troublesome Earl of Huntingdon. Marian loved Robin more than life itself, more than England and the king, and more than the people whom she had started to protect as the Nightwatchman three years before the return of her beloved. She loved him beyond sense and reason! Even when she had managed to keep pretense that she had gotten over him, her love for him was hidden in the depths of her heart – it was like a stream that disappeared for long underground, seemed lost, only to emerge again suddenly, real and deep and life-giving.

Robin laughed, a jubilant joy sweeping through him at her admission. His Marian had never been so frank with him before, and his heart was full of mirth and satisfaction, on account of him being her only true love. Pulling her closer to him, he said in most exultant tones, "I love you too! Only you, Marian!"

A look of sadness came over her face. "I have always loved you, but I still didn't understand how much and how deeply I love you until the moment when Guy and I faced each other in the courtyard." She smiled widely. "At that moment, I realized that nothing – death, time, or distance – will ever kill our love."

He smiled lovingly at her. He was so elated that he couldn't breathe for a moment. Divine flowers of his love for her were in full bloom in his heart. "I realized that I would never cease loving you upon my return."

Marian looked completely enamored, her heart palpitating with the love she felt for him. "You are hardly a forgettable man, and I will never cease loving you. You are _the love of my life_!"

"And you are _the love of my life_ , Marian!"

"I know, Robin," she said, smiling coquettishly. "It seems that we are stuck together for an eternity."

"I will never get enough of you, my love!"

"And neither will I."

He beamed at her. "We are good companions for an eternity!"

"No doubt, handsome."

All at once, his gaze became haunted. "What did you want to tell me about you and Guy?"

"It is very complicated, Robin." She felt her heart skip a beat as the flashbacks of the past flickered in her mind. "I was protecting the king, and, at first, I didn't plan to tell Guy that I was in love with you."

"You told Guy that you loved me before he stabbed you?" he asked incredulously, his eyes large in apparent surprise. He pulled away from her because her closeness was too tempting while he wished to talk to her, even though the topic they had touched on was a painful and difficult one.

Robin had believed that Gisborne had been trying to get to the wounded king, assuming that he had stabbed Marian because she had been the only hurdle on his way to power at that moment. It was logical: Marian and Guy had been alone in the courtyard, and Guy had been adamant at killing King Richard. Even after allying himself with Guy and bringing the older man to the outlaws' camp, they had always been aloof and had never spoken about Marian, for it was an unbearable topic for each of them. Robin had thought that Guy had realized the truth about him and Marian because it had been him, Robin, who had been cradling her dying and bleeding form in his arms and Guy, her almost murderer, who had witnessed the scene.

"Yes," she confirmed in an uneasy tone. Anguish mingled with horror pervaded her entire being as her mind meandered over the moments of her death in Acre. "I was unarmed and alone with him on that deserted square, and he was intent on committing regicide. He told me that he would kill the king and then we would be together. I could see a glint of determination in his eyes, and I knew that no words of mine would be enough to persuade him to spare the king. I needed to distract him somehow until help could arrive, and the only way I found was to tell him the truth about you and me."

Now everything was clear to Robin. "You thought that your confession would shock him so much that he would be unable to kill the king. You didn't believe that he would stab you," he finished for her.

She gave a nod, an airy glow spreading slowly across her face. "I told Guy that I was going to marry you and that I loved you! I felt so free and so happy when I said that!" She sighed and her expression darkened. "I know that it wasn't the smartest thing to say that. Definitely not to a man like Guy."

Robin was conflicted over his feelings for Guy. Despite the fact that his former sworn foe had saved his life in the siege and had died for Robin Hood's cause, Robin couldn't forgive Guy – forgive truly and fully – for all of the evil deeds which Gisborne had done in his lifetime. He had forgiven Guy for taking his lands and for stabbing him in the Saracen attack, perhaps even for oppressing the people of Locksley, but he couldn't have granted his ex-archenemy his forgiveness for Marian's murder. When Guy had lain dying in the tunnel, Robin had called him his friend and had thanked him for Guy's sacrifice, but that didn't mean that he had given Gisborne remission of what he considered Guy's gravest sin – Marian's death at Guy's hands.

Robin didn't feel like talking about Guy at the moment, but he still had to say something. "Guy changed and died a hero's dearth. He saved me from Isabella's poisoned dagger and was killed by her and Vaisey. If Guy hadn't pushed me away, Isabella would have stabbed me, or the blade could have scratched my neck." He paused, collecting his thoughts. "I am grateful to him for his sacrifice. I hope that he found peace in death."

"I am glad that Guy broke from Vaisey and changed. I always believed that there was good in him. I also feel indebted to him because he saved your life," she said, her heart pounding harder as the conversation about Guy was upsetting her a little bit. "He didn't know that I had survived, and I feel sorry for him."

A feeling of melancholy swept over him as he thought back to the moments of his interactions with Guy during the last year. "Guy felt very guilty," he enlightened her. "I tried to kill him after my return, but he threw me from a cliff, and instead I almost died; Tuck found me and saved my life. Then Guy begged me to take his life because he lived in hell, and I decided that it would serve him right to suffer. For some time, I enjoyed his sufferings, which is why I didn't kill him. Then my father found us and told us the truth about the past; Guy and I became allies, although it was a strange and kind of forced alliance." He paused, sighing deeply. "But you, my love, are live, and I feel I can almost forgive Gisborne for what he did to you."

"He wasn't that bad," she surmised. "And he found peace in death."

"The knowledge that he didn't take your life would have lightened his conscience."

"Yes, it would have."

Once Marian had believed that Guy and she could have been friends; definitely, she had never reciprocated Guy's feelings. When Guy had coerced her into a betrothal, she had tried to reconcile herself to the idea of being married to him, only knowing that her life would be equivalent to a torture after her wedding. She had tried to work within the system at first for her father, Sir Edward Fitzwater of Knighton, and, after Edward's death, she had returned to the castle to collect information about the sheriff's plots for Robin and the gang. Marian had seen how fiercely Guy had hated Robin and how deeply he had wished Robin dead, and that had made her even more determined to protect her betrothed from Gisborne.

Staying in the castle, she had been burdened by Guy's affections and his awkward attempts to court her. The intensity of Guy's obsessive feelings had frightened her at times, but she had continued giving him hope in order to ferret out more information for Robin. But Guy's feelings for her had been growing, and she had suspected that even if she had tried to severe his hopes to marry her by rejecting him, he wouldn't have believed her. His feelings for her had been like the proverbial endless silk thread which she might have kept on cutting by rejecting him but would have never succeeded in severing – Guy was an obsessed man.

Lies had mounted on more lies, and Marian had found herself enmeshed in a web of her deceits that were like summer flowers – lovely and enticing hopes for Guy's black-but-craving-for-redemption soul. She had been at cross-purposes: she had felt guilty of manipulating Guy's feelings, but she had seen no other way to protect Robin and serve the cause. Her vision of Guy's potential to become a good man wasn't a lie, although, in the end, the man in black leather had destroyed her belief in him by brutally stabbing her in a fit of jealous rage. When she had confronted Guy in the courtyard, she had given up on him and had grappled with him in their final battle, choosing to ruin Guy's illusions and hopes in order to stop him.

Marian didn't know whether she had forgiven Guy or not. After her awakening from the slumber in Acre, she thought a lot of Guy, but she didn't know for sure whether she would have made different choices if she could go back in time. On the way to England, Marian had experienced a multitude of emotions – happiness of returning to Robin, a gnawing feeling of uncertainty concerning Robin's fate in England, and a mortal terror that had seized her heart when she had imagined her meeting with Guy. Now Marian had mixed feelings towards Guy of Gisborne: she _pitied_ him and was _aggrieved_ with his death; she was _grateful_ to Guy for the salvation of Robin's life, but in a way she was _relieved_ that she wouldn't have to face him again.

Marian and Robin were silent, remembering Guy and silently giving tribute to him. Gisborne's soul carried many incisions and ever more scars – incisions of both darkness and light as the good and the bad were embroiled in a savage fight for dominance in the heart of the sheriff's cruel former henchman. Guy had found strength to break with the past, the darkness had receded and the skies had begun to brighten, and the true values of life had become clear to him. Guy had welcomed light that had leaped into his tortured soul and had become his ultimate absolution at the moment when he had sacrificed his life for Robin.

Guy's death didn't cast a gloom on the surviving outlaws who had never considered the sheriff's former right-hand man one of them and had accepted Guy in the gang only because Robin had announced their alliance in their quest to bring down Isabella. Presently, the outlaws were grieving the loss of Allan, an unwilling traitor whom they had wrongly misjudged due to Isabella's deceit and had condemned him to death at the hands of Sheriff Vaisey. Robin and Marian were mourning for Allan, and Robin was grappling with the guilt of not trusting his friend; they mourned for Guy as well, in their own quiet way.

"May Guy's soul rest in peace," he spoke after a long pause.

"May he rest in peace," she echoed.

Robin gave her an emphatic smile as he shifted on the bed closer to Marian. "So, my love, do I dare hope that we have discussed everything? You have been too talkative today!"

Marian made a sound, half laugh, half sob, and threw her arms around his neck, hugging him ardently. "My heroic outlaw, it seems that I have loved and waited for you forever!" she cried out.

"Forever, Marian. Forever, my love," he murmured fervently. "I will love you forever." He bent his head and kissed her softly, very softly, with the kisses of innate tenderness and all-permeating warmth.

The love of Robin Hood and Maid Marian was a legendary love of all times and centuries. It was a pure, deep, unconditional, and passionate love that was born out of innocence of their young hearts, lasted years despite their long and heartbreaking separation, and prevailed over all the hardships in their lives and even over death. This love would survive over the course of ages.

"Robin," she moaned his name, her hands gripping tenderly the curls on the back of his neck.

"Marian, have I told you that you have a talent for kissing?"

"Have I told you that I like when you look vulnerable, embarrassed, and slightly terrified to lose me?"

Robin and Marian laughed merrily, a long-forgotten sensation of lightness and mirth filling them to the core. He planted a sweet kiss on her mouth and then kissed her cheeks and again her lips. Robin kissed the tip of her nose twice, and Marian burst into a rich staccato of giggles. Robin laughed as well, and their melodic laughter rang in the air, the sound proclaiming the beginning of their new married life. A wonderful weightlessness came upon them, as if all burdens had fallen from them and they were in complete tranquility. They were just Marian and Robin, and the world ceased to exist.

"I like teasing you," he whispered against her lips. His arms encircled her and pulled her to him, one hand in the small of her back, the other at the nape of her head. "And I like when we are bickering."

Marian winded her arms around his neck. "Maybe there is something more interesting for the great Robin Hood than fighting with his wife and competing with the Nightwatchman?" Her hands were playing with the curls on the back of his neck. "Does a wife need to ask her husband twice?"

A chuckle came from Robin. "No, she doesn't. As a knight, I am obliged to obey my lady love's wishes."

Her smile was like a shining star on a moonlit night sky. "I suppose my enthusiasm took you by surprise." She shrugged eloquently. "You know that I can play a proper lady when I want." A mischievous grin twisted her lips. "I might give you a stellar performance of a married woman waiting for her husband's affections, but a small voice whispers to me that the spirit of a rogue outlaw in you will protest!"

"You can ask this rogue outlaw what he thinks," he said in a desire-filled voice before his lips met hers for a kiss on the mouth. "Or maybe he may show you what he has on his mind." He kissed her cheeks.

"Maybe," she purred in between kisses.

He drew back and brought her hand to his lips and kissed lightly. "Not maybe – for sure!" His eyes twinkled, and his lips twisted into that gentle smile that she loved so very much and that was purely for her. "I have been chivalrous towards you for so long. But I am going to correct my mistake, my love."

Marian laughed. When Robin's eyes twinkled with mischief and he was naughtily romantic, she always was full of gladness, but when those eyes turned stormy with passion ignited in their depths and darkened a shade, it affected her like a mysterious pull that released all of her femininity and passions. She wanted and needed him as much as she had never wanted him before. Marian wanted to be Robin's for so long, but he hadn't wanted to take her until they were wed. At times, Robin's too chivalrous nature and his respect for her irritated her as much as his unwavering loyalty to the king and his inordinate need to be loved.

Marian smiled dazedly. "Robin Hood is the best archer in England; probably, the best swordsman too. I hope that archery is not your only talent."

Grinning wickedly, Robin spoke brazenly. "I love an indecent Marian more than a proper Marian! I assure you, my darling, I will teach you all secrets of the marriage bed." He leaned closer to her, his mouth brushing her hair and his arms enveloped about her waist. "I want you so much… Let me show how much I love you and want you, _my Marian_ ," he said in a throaty voice into her ear.

"Show me," she demanded. She had never been with a man before, but her maid, Sarah, had told her some things about physical love when she had been betrothed to Guy. She desperately wanted Robin!

Robin trapped Marian in his arms and kissed her ardently. A thrill of excitement rushed through her as she felt his hands slid down her back, sending tingles of pleasure through her whole body. The touch of his tender lips on hers, the sensation of being enveloped in his embrace, and the feeling of his hardness pressing against her hips sent a wave of vehement desire surging through Marian. She had longed to be his, her body crushed against his, and she couldn't wait any longer. All shame put aside, her fingers began to search for the fastenings of the shirt; she needed to feel his skin against hers.

Impressed with her boldness, he smiled mischievously at her and brushed her fingers aside. "Impatient to see me naked?" He removed his boots; then he took off his jerkin and threw it on the floor near the bed. Then he yanked at his shirt, quickly pulling it over his head and flinging it somewhere in the room.

Watching him throw his shirt on the floor, she continued their easy banter, "You are a lecherous man!" She took off her boots and placed them on the floor.

Robin laughed. "Brazen, irresistible, handsome, and intolerable!"

Marian felt her heart thumping madly in her chest as her eyes took in the sight of his bare lean chest that seemed slightly orange bathed in a halo of the candlelight. She noticed that Robin had lost some weight since her return, an affect of his hard work for the people in the aftermath of the siege and of his emotional torment in the wake of the bloodbath in the town, as well as Allan and Guy's deaths. The fire low in her belly grew fiercer: his lithe frame was appealing, powerfully built, and personified a mature man's strength.

Robin smiled at her with an expectedly timid smile. "A half-naked Robin Hood is at your disposal!"

She frowned and blushed. She knew that she should have been ashamed of her secret desires, but she couldn't – she wanted to see and explore his body. She had seen him half-naked before, when she had tended to the arrow wound on his forearm in Clun and when he had bathed in the river in the woods. However, she never allowed herself to scrutinize him as it had been improper. Now Robin was her husband!

Her breathing quickened as she pressed her palm against his naked chest and dragged her fingernails over his smooth flesh, stopping to touch and pluck his nipple before sliding her hand lower, along the dusting of light brown. She could see and feel under her hand a collection of small scars and marks which were cleaved on his skin, each of them being an afflictive reminder of the battles he had fought in the Holy Land and as an outlaw in Nottinghamshire, each of them a symbol of his staunch loyalty to England, the king, and the people. Marian felt her heart skip a beat as she touched a puckered, ugly scar on his left side.

Robin shivered and recoiled instinctively, taking her hand from the scar and covering it with his palm. He didn't want anyone to touch him there, not even Marian. "Please, don't touch me here," he pleaded.

"Robin, my love, I want to know all of you," Marian said in a caressing voice. She put her hand on his and with sincere compassion added, "I want to know the man you have become when we were apart."

He looked away, his eyes fixed on the window. It was already dark outside, and a thick fog came down the forest. Dragging a shuddering breath, he spoke and trusted his fears to her. "Your touch here makes me feel tormented and insecure." He sighed, and his voice deepened as he continued, "Memories are burning me alive when I remember Acre and the Saracen attack… I cannot look back…"

"I understand you, Robin. It is difficult for me to look back as well." Marian pulled her tunic up to show him her own scarred abdomen. "It is too difficult when I have these scars and see them every day."

Robin gasped in shock, and his hands balled into fists, as his gaze landed on a disfiguring, still red scar that ran two inches down from below her belly button. Never before had he thought that a man may feel such pain from a mere sight of a scar. Marian's scar was a memento of the tragedy, of Guy's greatest crime, of her physical and emotional trauma, and of the pain and grief he himself had experienced thinking that she had died in Imuiz. Robin lingered his gaze on that scar for a moment longer, and then his eyes flew to another scar in the lower part of her stomach – a smaller scar from Guy's curved dagger after he had stabbed her and she had died in a cave. Robin's mind was in a great turmoil as memories flooded him.

"Oh my God… Marian…" he lamented in an anguished voice.

He reached out a hand to trace the two scars on her stomach gingerly, caressing the marred skin. She didn't protest, allowing him to touch her as if the two disfigurements didn't bother her. His touch wasn't burning her – it was making her feel safe because she was always safe with him.

At the moment, Marian felt as vulnerable as one might feel in the eyes of approaching calamity. But when she spoke, her voice was confident and strong. "These scars are not only imperfections and reminders of pain, grief, and death: they are the proof of our sacrifices for King Richard, for England, and for the people."

Tears stung his eyes as he placed his hand on the scar from Guy's sword. "We both bear scars inflicted by the same man." His voice was laced with notes of despair.

Marian put a hand on his own scar on the left side and traced its outlines; this time, he didn't remove her hand. "We shouldn't think of what Gisborne did to us, Robin. We should wear these scars proudly."

A faint smile tugged at Robin's lips. Nevertheless, there were still tears in his eyes that were full of endless sadness. "As heroes of England," he assumed. "Robin Hood and the Nightwatchman."

She smiled back at him. "Yes." She sighed. "I just wanted you to know that I understand you, Robin."

"Thank you, my love."

Marian and Robin burst into laughter, for it was hilarious that they were sitting on the bed with their hands covering each other's scars. The importance of the moment was overwhelming: they were looking into one another's hearts, sharing their wounds, pains, fears, insecurities, and woes and connecting on a deeper emotional level than ever before. Their hearts were now linked together more closely by the ties of most intimate trust, love, care, sympathy, and friendship. This newly achieved understanding allowed them to have their pain buried in the mould of primordial earth and look into the resplendent future they had ahead.

She now had a grin splashed across her face. "I am waiting, Robin."

With a rich chuckle on his flustered face, his gaze locked with hers, Robin delicately traced her features with a finger that almost trembled. He grabbed her tunic and tore it off, throwing it away. He bounced to his feet and unlaced his breeches, and in a moment all of his clothes came off next. He stood before her, staring at her silent and completely naked, his skin shimmering in a warm light from the burning candles and the flames in the hearth. He didn't feel embarrassed at all, and there was a promising smile on his face.

One brow cocked quizzically, he inquired mockingly, "Does everything meet with my wife's approval?"

Marian gasped, her face suffused with heat and shame. Oh, he was indubitably handsome and delectable! Yet, she was more embarrassed from seeing him nude than from her own nakedness. After her embarrassment eased, she hurriedly shielded her breasts from him, which elicited his good-humored chuckle. Astounded and equally aroused, she stared at his smiling face and then let her eyes roam over his naked chest, and something deep within her body clenched. When her gaze went down, she gasped again at the sight of his arousal, his narrow hips, his well shaped and attractively muscled legs.

"Yes," she whispered, unable to tear her gaze away from him.

Robin made a perusal of his wife. Now Marian was naked up to her waist, her tunic was on the floor, and his breath caught in his throat at the incredible loveliness in front of his eyes. He had bedded many women, but he had never been intimate with Marian; he had never seen her without clothes before, although she had been clothed only in her nightdress when once he had been hiding in her bedroom in the castle. She was the most beautiful woman in the world, Robin thought, his gaze dropping down the length of her torso. She was everything he had imagined she would be and more; two scars on her belly didn't make her less enchanting. Marian's skin was smooth and pale as the finest alabaster; her well-shaped, seductive form and her breasts, proud, full, and luscious to behold, could tempt any man and all the Gods of Greek Olympus.

Robin smiled at her appraising expression. "I want no barriers between us."

He stepped to the bed and extended his hand to her; she took it and stood up. He pulled her to himself and looked at her with his sparkling blue eyes, pleased to see a desire for him in her own glowing sapphire eyes. He had swept her up into his arms and sought her lips, and as they locked together, their tongues entwined like two lifelong lovers lost in their own world of maddening passion.

Kissing her heatedly on the mouth, Robin found the string holding her breeches. He untied it and pulled her breeches down to her knees, making a step back and studying her closely.

"Ah!" she breathed, her cheeks turning crimson. She covered her exposed parts with her hands.

He laughed at her. "You are such a spoilsport, Marian! Don't hide from your husband! Don't you think that we both had to dispense with these infernal bits of clothes, do you?"

Marian groaned at the ridiculousness of the situation. "I am… I…" she stuttered. She stepped out of her breeches, discarded her other undergarments, and stood in the candlelight, stark naked, facing her husband who was openly admiring her.

Robin scooped her into his arms and kissed her on the forehead with innate tenderness. "Trust me, my love. I will be as gentle as I can. I will try not to hurt you." In his loins, the fire darted stronger.

"I know, handsome." She smiled with an unchaste smile, a spirited glint in her eyes. Her embarrassment perished in an ocean of lusty passion that was mirrored in his eyes. She had never wanted him more than she craved him at that very moment.

"My wife," he murmured. His entire body was nearly trembling from the force of desire she aroused in him. He could feel the rampant heat building inside of him, every part of his body arcing for her, and he wondered if she knew how close he was to losing control. But he didn't want to hurry today, wishing to make their first time a pleasurable, delightful, joyful, passionate, and unforgettable for both of them.

The sight of Marian's smoldering eyes looking at him with a sexy, dazed expression made Robin spring into action, leaning forward and capturing her mouth with his. He pulled her against his muscular chest, and they began kissing like two people going mad, like it was the last time they would ever kiss again, like the end of the world was near. Their kisses were magic, their embrace heaven; their hot blood was clamoring in their veins, and desire, like sun-warmed honey, flowed in their veins. Their enormous, unearthly love penetrated every part of their bodies, hearts, and souls, and they were avid of tasting, touching, and feeling each other. The world spun away, and only the two of them existed.

Outside of the hunting lodge, the night – exciting, clear, spangled, and unusually warm for autumn in this corner of England – drew a purplish curtain across the heaven smiling at the reunited husband and wife. There was deep and serene silence in the woods, and it could make everyone feel a strong connection to wonders of nature. The silence was intensified by the barely audible rustle of the treetops over which the wind gently breathed. Somewhere in the depths of Sherwood, the birds chirped, and the dark water in the River Trent babbled its soft song of peace, its rhythm causing a slight vibration in the air.

An arching moon arose and sailed, like a silver boat, high into the night sky. The candles extinguished, and the room was illuminated only by the flames dancing in the hearth. The lovers continued kissing and cuddling, their bodies on fire, feeling the larger-than-life rhythmical pulse of more powerful desire course through them. Every new tide of that desire was as sensually dangerous and powerful as a continuous, sullen, ominous threat of something unknown could be, and it was about to rise, engulf, and devour them.

Robin broke the kiss, and his eyes met her orbs. "My love," he whispered.

"Robin, I need you," she purred against his lips, her voice passionate. Her rosy lips, swollen from his kisses, parted in a salacious invitation, her eyes almost drowsy.

"I want you madly," he said savagely. He winked at her. "But you have to be patient."

Robin picked Marian up and carried her to the bed. He gently laid her down and stood back to enjoy the sight of her. A prankish smile worked its way to his lips at the sight of her flushed face and her parted lips. There was so much love and desire in Marian that all he wanted was to rush to her and ravage her lips as thoroughly as he ached to ravage her body. His wife was an unimaginable temptress even with her limited experience with men, and he suspected that she had no idea how powerful her charms were.

Marian's face changed into worry. "Why are you looking at me so? Don't I please you?" She swallowed with difficulty, helplessly attempting to tear her thoughts from what bothered her a lot, but failed. There was a tremble in her voice as she spoke. "I am sorry if my scars make me less desirable…"

Shaking his head, Robin landed on the bed next to his wife. "Never think of such things, Marian," he assured her. "My love, you are the most beautiful woman in England and in the whole world. You are more beautiful than my eyes can take in and than any man may wish his wife to be. Your eyes sparkle like two sapphires, enchanting me and holding me to you. You are beautiful, intelligent, loyal, honest, compassionate, brave, fearless, strong, and so very unique! You are precious to me – you are _my Marian_ , my wife and my pride!"

She smiled, touched by the beauty and seductiveness of his candid words. "Thank you." She was grateful for the reassurance, for at times she felt uncomfortable when she herself touched her scars, despite her own earlier speech about scars. "You are _my Robin_ – my Robin Hood, my hero, and my husband."

His lips lengthened in an impish smile. "You have enmeshed me in desire! I can think only of you!"

Robin couldn't wait any longer. He bent forward to flick his tongue against her tempting lips while his hands closed around her hips, pulling her closer to him. She gave him entrance to the silken depths of her mouth and twined her arms about his neck, kissing him back with an ardor that matched his. His hands were caressing her body expertly, slowly, tenderly and languidly, as if worshipping her body. Robin deepened the kiss, and her body arched up uncontrollably, her fingers tangled in the thick sandy hair on his head. Their bodies were pulsating with the force of the desire that held the spouses in its inescapable grip.

Robin kissed the tip of her nose and then started kissing her neck, moving down to her breasts. "This is something that I have been dreaming of doing since I learned that you are unmarried." He worked his way up to her mouth. "I am glad that you didn't shoot me from your bow during our first meeting."

"Oh my Lord," Marian's groan came. The fabulous sensations elicited by his caresses seared through her like lightning, burning from the inside out. "Robin…" She herself began to caress his arms and his back, feeling his muscles quiver under her touch.

He lifted her long, dark hair to reveal more of her neck as he slowly kissed every inch of her neck and moved towards her ears to kiss the sensitive spot there. "If you had shot me when I returned, you would have never had this…" He sucked on her earlobe. "And this…" He lowered his head, kissing her chin and the hollow of her throat. "And this…" He moved lower and applied his tongue to tantalize the tips of her breasts while his fingers tweaked one of her nipples and began to fondle her breast. "And this…"

Her nails clawed in his shoulders, leaving tiny marks on his skin. "I should have shot you."

As he suckled at her breast while fondling the other, he chuckled with satisfaction as he heard her moan softly. "You are often livid with me, and you say that you have many reasons to murder me; maybe even for my annoyance and recklessness." He lifted his eyes to her, a smug grin on his face. "But before killing me, think of what you will lose!" He captured her breast with his mouth. "This and many other things!"

His beard scratched her tender skin, and the feeling was joy and bliss and glory for her. Her hands tenderly stroked the curves of his flanks. "You are a sinner, Robin Hood."

"Let me prove you how lustful I am." As he continued his onslaught on her breasts with more fervor, one of his hands slid between their bodies in a feverish search of her womanhood. His skilled fingers found the soft curls between her legs, and he touched her there, stroking and teasing. "So?"

"Sinner," she repeated, inflamed even further by his fondlings.

"Sinners," he corrected. His lips found hers again, and she eagerly surrendered to his kiss.

Marian gave a moan and shivered impetuously as his fingers gently probed between her thighs. Her breath was coming in short, little gasps as a gamut of new extraordinary sensations rushed through her body. Her groan of approval and pleasure pushed him to continue the experiment, and each caress was driving her deeper and deeper into an intricate web of desire and a misty oblivion of pleasure. She was reacting to his blatantly sensuous touch with blind instinct, and Robin thought that she would be good at lovemaking very soon, for she was every bit as passionate as he imagined she would be.

She began to move beneath him, boneless with longing for more. "Robin," she called.

Robin could bear it no longer. He slid between her thighs and, cupping her hips, lifted her. "It will hurt, but I will be gentle," he tried to assuage her in case she was fearful of the pain that would follow.

With a sound between a growl and a moan, Robin began to sink slowly within her, mindfully careful and attentive to her physical reaction. Although she was drowning in pleasure, she was slightly frightened of the moment. As if he read her troubled thoughts, Robin paused and smiled with a potent promise as he stroked a gorgeous mane of her dark hair and kissed her slowly and languorously, distracting her. She was kissing him back with a passion that echoed his in strength and depth, and then, using a moment, Robin slid his fill length into her in one smooth motion, taking her maidenhead and making her his wife in all senses.

Their kiss ended when Marian felt a tiny jab of pain. The pain was tolerable and instant because Robin took her very gently, but it was still there. "Ah!" she cried out into his mouth, her eyes widening.

"Shhh, my love," Robin breathed against her lips. "It will be alright soon. Relax and breathe."

Inhaling deeply and exhaling fully, Marian blinked and smiled as the pain was gone. She found herself lost in a maelstrom of incredible sensations, and her body was trembling with an unsatisfied hunger for him. She had never felt as complete as she did feel at that moment: Marian was no longer a maid, she was a woman, and, most importantly, now she was Robin's wife forever, until doomsday and even longer. Her heart and soul always belonged to Robin, and now her body was also his.

"I love you, my beautiful, beautiful Lord of Locksley," she whispered, smiling happily, her face alight with gladness. She was overflowing with an awesome blend of emotions – heavenly happiness, ineffable joy, unspeakable delight, vehement passion, and perfect completeness.

"I love you too, my beautiful, bold, and fearless Lady of Locksley," he murmured, breathing heavily and giving his most tender smile. Being united with her was the most glorious and most intensely sensual feeling in the world; it was physical intimacy coupled with a blissful happiness and ravishment. "Only you."

As Robin felt Marian move tentatively under him, he himself began to move inside her. His thrusts were slow and careful as he gave her time to get accustomed to his size and new sensations. She was so tight and so hot that he wanted to reach his release now, but he fought for control, wanting to elongate their pleasure. Marian was still aching slightly from his possession, also drowning in an ocean of passion and happiness and pleasure, and she hankered for more magic her husband was practicing on her. She burned with need for him, and the voluptuous movements of her hips were her response. Marian's reaction almost sent Robin over the edge, and his thrusts became increasingly fervent, urgent, and stronger.

He smiled with a Cheshire cat smile. "Let me show you the most delicious part." He closed his eyes for a moment and thought of nothing, except for the beauty of the moment and the heat of her body.

Robin took her mouth, allowing his tongue to mimic the movements of his hips. They began kissing with extreme desperation and passion, deeply and possessively, as if it were their last moment on earth. She wrapped her legs around his waist, her arms around his neck as the kiss went on and on. Their cries of pleasure mingled in their erratic breathing – they moaned and cried out and panted, almost sobbed, and their lips frothed with nearly the sensual violence of the encounter their mouths and tongues were having. Their thrusts were growing harder and wilder, deeper and deeper, as their enjoyment increased.

The dance of love continued, becoming a wild, uninhibited dance of abandonment, as myriads of vibrant, exquisite, and colossally strong emotions were exploding inside of them. Their bodies pressed impossibly close, their hearts were thundering madly together, like two drums pounding out their erratic cadence, and their sensations were heaven on earth. A feeling of freedom engulfed their souls, and they felt like two birds that escaped from their cage to the wilderness of the otherworldly and unknown world. Their bodies were invigorated and whole, and red, hot, passion-filled blood was boiling in their veins. Their moans were gaining in volume, strength, frequency, and intensity.

Drunk with desire and euphoria, Marian started pressing hot and sucking kisses along Robin's jaw and down his neck. He moaned and cried out in pleasure as he ran his hands through her long hair tousled over her shoulders, the ends curling around her breasts. He seized her hands and pinned them above her head, then ravaged her bare neck and shoulders until she couldn't breathe and a spectacularly loud shriek of pleasure erupted from her mouth. The sound of her enjoyment was like a siren's call, pushing Robin to increase his pace: his thrusts transformed into hard, powerful, ever-penetrating pounds into her.

Robin again kissed her hard on the mouth, wrenching another cry of delight from her throat. She dug her nails into him and raked them down his back, and he growled. Their sensations were heightened to their extremes, and their souls were soaring as if something celestial transpired between them and lifted them to the highest heights possible. Feeling himself close to release, Robin turned his rapid, wanton thrusts into a slow, steady rhythm to prolong their pleasure. That agony was voraciously growing with every new stroke until bursts of blinding light exploded in their heads and waves of colossal, most intense pleasure cascaded through them like a rampaging river, leaving them dazed and almost delirious.

Robin and Marian lay still, their limbs entangled like branches after a storm; his head was buried into her shoulder, her arms wrapped around his back. It was a long time before he could bring himself to slide from Marian, for the sensation of their intimacy was too intoxicating. He was listening to the frantic beat of her heart that echoed his own and feeling the tremors racing through her body. Their breathings were ragged and uneven, their bodies slick with sweat; their heartbeats were slowly growing steadier.

At last, he rolled off of her and lay next to her, snuggling against her. "What we had was more powerful than the magic of mythological druids and old Saxon gods," he said raucously, in a voice still laced with lust.

She broke into a blithesome laughter. Her fingers tangled in his hair and then lowered to the curve of his shoulders. "The legendary Captain Locksley is thinking of pagan gods… What would King Richard have said if he heard you now?" Her voice was hoarse, as though she hadn't spoken for a long time.

Robin was so happy that even the reference to his past – a high-ranking, famous Crusader and the king's beloved captain of the royal guard – didn't spoil his mood. "He would have said that I love my wife more than anyone else in the world. Wives of my comrades would have envied you more than they already do."

"Fool," she teased him with a smile.

He rolled over onto his stomach and again buried his face into her shoulder. "But your fool." He chuckled against her skin, and the vibrations tickled through her.

"Yes, only my fool. And such a dear fool!"

Instead of responding, Robin smiled at her gibingly and pulled back the sheets on the bed. Pressing her closer to himself, he draped the sheets over them. For a while, they lounged in silence next to each other in their bed as the last twinges of pleasure ebbed from their bodies.

Robin raised his head and eyed her attentively. "How are you, Marian?"

A dazzling smile manifested on her face. "I am feeling marvelous!"

There was a dark glimmer in his eyes which she deciphered as a flash of passion. "Excellent!" He inclined his head, and his lips met the spot where her neck curved into her shoulder. He flicked his tongue against her skin. "Most men wait to move until victory is guaranteed, but I like a challenge even when I am tired!"

Marian arched towards his touch. "What are you planning?"

Robin's thoughts went directly to the notion of how wonderful it would feel to kiss her again. "I have an outstanding half-a-plan: I will face a challenge of kissing you senseless," he stated as he flung off the sheet from her body. "You lured me into marriage, and you will pay for that!"

"You are the most obnoxious creature I have known!"

"I know that I am incorrigible!"

She covered herself again. "You are much worse, Robin!"

"I like to see you nude!"

She wrinkled her nose as if in distaste. Clutching the sheet in feigned modesty to cover her body, she sat up in the bed, leaving his torso uncovered. "Are you playing the role of a heroic lover?"

"I should perceive it as an affront, but I won't," he said somewhat tartly. Then his whole demeanor changed as he cocked an eyebrow and grinned imposingly. "I am not a heroic lover – just your husband who is besotted by you and is head over heels in love with you."

Marian couldn't resist his charms and allure for long. "Your wife reciprocates your feelings."

"I have no doubt that she does."

She rolled her eyes. "So full of yourself and so cocky!"

"But, _it is me, Robin_ ," he said innocently.

She smiled fondly at him. Now his expression was as sheepish and bright as the one she had seen on his face when Much and he had come to Knighton Hall and he had seen her for the first time. When he had said _"It is me, Robin!",_ all her old feelings for him had resurfaced with an intensity that had surprised her; her affection for him had been intertwined with a dizzying feeling of huge relief that he had returned home alive and not crippled. It was always Robin, only him! Later, when they had reconciled, he had told her that it had been the happiest moment of his whole life to learn that she had been unmarried.

Marian playfully prodded him in the ribs. "Yes, you!"

" _Me_!" He sent an airy kiss to her.

" _Us!_ " she pouted her lips and reiterated, " _Us_!"

"Yes, my love!" he exclaimed. " _Us!_ "

She shifted slightly on the bed until she was gazing down at him, into his eyes. "Don't you dare forget that it is _'us'_ now, not _'you'_ or _'me'_ – you are no longer a bachelor!"

"This is the thing I will never forget because I don't want to be free from you!"

"Oh, how flattering, Robin!"

He shook his head disapprovingly, looking up at her. "Be a good wife and come to me, my love."

Grinning, Robin pulled her down to the bed, and she willingly went into his arms. She lay in his embrace, suddenly conscious of a thickening in her blood as a craving for him returned. The sheet was draped only across her lower body, and he was contemplating avariciously her firm breasts gleaming in the dim light.

He was again aroused. His heart started racing, and his gaze was raking her with thoroughly blatant desire. "You are the loveliest forest nymph who makes me the happiest man on earth!"

She smiled gratefully. "You have made me very happy today, handsome!"

"I think we have well today. Now we have begun."

"What, Robin?"

"Our life!" he uttered with a light-hearted thrill. "Our married life!"

Giddy emotions flooded her. "Oh, you mean it!"

A cheeky smile curved his lips. "Yes!" He kissed her then, hotly and hungrily and hotly, his lips relishing in the taste of her sweetness. "This sort of thing."

Marian kissed Robin back, feeling his appetent and adroit hand touching her body where she wanted to be touched by him most of all. She leaned into him for more, and that made him stab his tongue deeper into her mouth. Hands caressed and stroked, cajoled and tantalized, his and hers, mouths sought and found, tongues dueled and teased and tickled. Heat rose and fell and rose again and blood boiled, until the most innocent and tender expression of their love grew into a compulsion to join together.

His hand pushed her legs apart, and, gradually, Robin entered her; he feared to cause her some pain that she was sore, but she assured him that she was fine. She pushed up against his hips, hunger flooding through her when he groaned and bit her lower lip. He began to rock her gently, and then she herself initiated a rhythm, meeting his every thrust and leading him deeper. Moving together with perfect rhythm and timing, their moans became one as they kissed. He knew how to bring her to the point of release his wickedly knowing mouth wreaked its magic on hers. They were carried away to the ultimate ecstasy.

After their lovemaking, this time, tender and slow, Marian lay in Robin's arms quite still, in her best dream. "I might get pregnant after the first time, can't I?" she asked unexpectedly.

Robin dropped a kiss on her hair and muttered in an odd tone, "Well, I wasn't… careful. I am not a midwife or a physician, but I suppose that I might have gotten you with child tonight." Since her return, he wondered whether they would ever have children, fearful that the stab wound in her stomach could have made her barren; he hadn't dared ask her that. But even if their union would be childless, he would never say any word of displeasure to her because he loved her too much. She was all he needed for happiness.

"Djaq and the king's physician think that I may conceive… despite my injury." She wanted very much to bear his child, a fruit of their love. "But the timing is not perfect. The king is held captive in Austria."

A smile blossomed on his face. His heart was singing like forest birds at the thought that his fears proved wrong. "And when was the timing for everything we did perfect, my love?"

She laughed. "Probably never!"

"Except for the timing for the today's union of our hearts and bodies!"

"You are a sinner, Robin!"

Tucking a lock of hair behind her ear, Robin smiled that familiar lascivious smile that told her that she would have a lot of evidence of his _'sinful'_ desires. "We both are embodiments of sin!"

Marian leaned on her elbow and toyed with a few strands of his hair that were falling roguishly over his forehead. "We are husband and wife." She smiled. "It sounds so wonderful – husband and wife!"

Robin kissed her ear, worshiping it with his mouth and then his tongue. "More than wonderful, Marian!" Then he looked at her with warmth, and a wry smile lurked at the corners of his lips. "Do you know what I am thinking of? Maybe a new Huntingdon will be born before the king's return to England!"

She poked him in the ribs. "You cannot want only children with me!"

A mysterious silence ensued, his expression evolved into absolute concentration, and the guarded look appeared in his eyes. The fire in the hearth was almost out and gave off little light. He averted his gaze and looked at the window, lost deep in thought. The hazy, dim glow of the crescent moon shined down on the forest landscape, refracting through the thick fog that had blanketed Sherwood in the night.

Marian wondered what was happening in her husband's head and what he feeling. She didn't speak, not daring to break his stillness. And she could be in that silence for an endless moment because Robin lay there, so close to her, with his arms round her, his sweaty body touching hers, so close. They were in their own world of peace and balance, separated from the worries and imperfections outside of the hunting lodge.

Eventually, he looked back at her and spoke. "Marian, I have never wanted to cage you and bend you to my will," he said in a plaintive voice. There was an undertone of irritation in his voice because he didn't like what she had said. "You have a freedom-loving spirit. I know that if I cage you, a lark reveling in freedom, I will make you unhappy."

Feeling suddenly ashamed, Marian blurted out, "I know, Robin! I am sorry that I said that! I am aware that no husband would have ever tolerated my… independence."

"No husband, except for me."

"Yes."

Robin grew serious. "I understand you because we are cut from the same cloth."

Marian nodded. "Nobody understands me better than you."

She sighed bitterly as she remembered Guy's attempts to win her heart. And there was a time when she had struggled to persuade herself that she could be married to Gisborne and be content with her choice. Yet, she never had a shadow of a doubt that her marriage to Guy would have been doomed from the beginning. God, the man hadn't even comprehended her desire to be the Nightwatchman and help the poor and oppressed! Guy would have never given her as much freedom as she would have in her marriage to Robin.

"You know me very well, Marian. I want you to believe me that I will never force you to do what you don't want to. I don't want and don't need a wife who pleases me in bed, bears my heirs, and runs my estates. You are the woman I love and the woman makes me a whole man, who complements me in every way and balances me out. You are a unique woman, and I am not striving to destroy your uniqueness; I will never do that to you. I respect and treasure this unique person – you."

"We are partners," she said cheerfully, smiling and happy to hear his words of love and appreciation.

"Yes, we are."

"You and I are two most unusual people in the world," she opined with a smile, and he nodded, his smile matching hers in its brightness. However, her features darkened ever so slightly and she chided him, "And yet, you curbed my freedom when I lived in the forest, but I know that it was for my safety."

Robin diverted his gaze from her and looked at the ceiling. "Yes, it is true that I didn't want to put you in danger. But it was wrong of me to treat you like my lady love, not like one of the lads. I promise that I won't make this mistake again as long as we live in the woods."

"That will mean a lot to me, Robin."

"I know. You have my world that I will never make the same mistake again. But we must be very cautious." He didn't intend to cage her in the camp, but he would continue being an overprotective husband. He didn't want to lose her again! He couldn't live without her! They would have to sort out their differences, but he was convinced that they would find a compromise after the achieved level of understanding.

She was awash in relief. "Good."

He sighed, looking pensive. "In her message, Queen Eleanor wrote that she had begun negotiations with the Holy Roman Emperor about the king's release and ransom. I hope that Richard will come back within a year; then we will be pardoned and will return to Locksley Manor or to one of our estates in Huntingdonshire." He was relieved that Marian had returned after the siege as he wouldn't have allowed her to participate even if he had had to drag her to the sanctuary of an abbey; she didn't need to know that.

Marian arched a surprised brow. "You are maturing, Robin!" she mocked him.

He looked back at her. "But I will never grow up completely because you don't want me to!"

"Robin, I am fully aware that you were a grown-up man when you returned from the Crusade," she said with profound seriousness. "I may chasten you severely, but I often don't mean what I say."

His countenance revealed astonishment. "Good to know that you have such a high opinion of me!" A smile curled his lips. "I often don't mean what I say when I mock my enemies and even my friends."

"Undoubtedly! Much is your main victim!"

Robin sighed remorsefully. "Much is an easy target for a tease, and he might be very annoying, but I feel guilty of being unnecessarily cruel to him in anger. I have to admit that sometimes I push him away deliberately. I should treat him better."

"Definitely, Robin."

"I promise to make amends!"

She nodded her agreement. "I hope so."

His face changed into a prankish grin. He wrapped a thick tress of her hair about his fingers, and pulled. She yelped and scowled at him. "I love teasing you and being teased back! I especially covet to hear you recommend that I grow up, even though it is one of your cliché phrases!"

Her grin mimicked his. "I will need to make up something new for you!"

"Yes, you must! You have been pedaling the same old drivel for years!"

Exhilaration spun through her body in widening waves, and she let out a laugh. "You are no gentlemen, Robin of Locksley! How dare you steal my words for your own use?"

"Marian of Locksley, have my charms made you so dazed that you have forgotten that I am a thief? I can steal everything I want!" His grin widened, and he planted a series of open-mouthed kisses along her jaw line.

She smiled at him mistily. "Like you stole kisses from me when you came to Knighton at night to take me to Sherwood for a target practice at dawn or for a night hunting trip in secret from my father!"

"Like we stole each other's hearts years ago!"

"Yes, my annoying outlaw!"

Robin cupped her face and let his mouth hover over hers. "I love you, my wife," he whispered.

"I love you, my husband," Marian retorted with an enchanting smile.

"We will never be separated again, my Queen of Sherwood," he said in a high, euphoric voice.

"Never ever, my King of Sherwood," she agreed with conviction against his cheek.

Robin flashed a bone-melting smile. "Marian, you are mine and only mine! You are my wife, and I am going to make love to you every night during the rest of my life!" He kissed her again, this time with excruciating slowness, his tongue surging warmly into her eager mouth.

Marian felt as if reality were melting, as his seeking, crafty hands traveled so stimulatingly and earnestly over the plains and curves of her body. "I will gladly permit you that, Robin," she asserted as the kiss ended; her lips were stinging from his hungry kiss. "But only if you don't misbehave, husband!"

Brushing back a lock of her hair from her forehead, his hand lingering against her cheek, he pledged in the most piquant, sing-song voice, "Yeah, I will behave badly! I will be very frolicsome and depraved!" He winked at her, with that great and roguish perpetual grin on his face which bewitched women with its charming insolence and infuriated his enemies with its devilish confidence. "We won't have much time to argue, my love! I am utterly committed and deeply devoted to being the husband you want me to be!"

"I will welcome your advances," she returned breathlessly, her skin tingling with excitement. She was feeling as if she were flying in mid-air, circling and swirling above him. "Don't disappoint me, Robin Hood!"

"I won't let you down, my dear wife!" he affirmed as his mouth came down warmly on hers.

Robin and Marian were kissing for a long time, all of the pain, anguish, fear, and misery that had been theirs in the past burned away by _the power of their immortal love_. Outside, the night world was still and at peace, the infinity of its ephemeral beauty stressed by the silver moonlight that shimmered through the maze of trees and streamed through the cottage window, falling on the bed.

The love of the two legends grew throughout the trials of life and blossomed in Sherwood Forest. The hero and the heroine were happy in a cozy cocoon of their entangled limbs, far from the civilized world and glorifying their love in the passionate dances of carnal delight and spiritual union as a sweet fire was gliding sensually through them. Robin was a painter of Marian's happiness on a canvas of her life, and she was the painter of his. She was his sunshine, and he was the reason for her happiness. Robin Hood and Lady Marian, whose love would echo through ages and would transcend time and death, were finally home.

* * *

 _I hope that you liked this story._

 _This is an AU exclusively for Robin and Marian fans and for Robin/Marian shippers. The outlaws are not in focus, although they are mentioned in this story. It is a "healing" story for those who were heartbroken over the death of Robin in the S3 Finale and Marian's death in the S2 Finale._

 _After Marian's unexpected and miraculous return to Nottingham, she learns about the siege and deaths of Allan and Guy. Allan and Guy follow their canonical fates: they die in the siege. Robin is not stabbed by Isabella, and his neck is not even scratched by the poisoned dagger because Guy sacrifices his life for his former archenemy. I am sorry that Guy dies, but it is not a story about him, and I gave him a heroic death – a death for Robin Hood and England. I cannot think of a better redemption for Guy than saving Robin's life and dying for the hero of the woods. Marian and Robin mourn for these two men._

 _Maid Marian and Robin Hood are reunited. They are extremely happy and deeply in love. Of course, they are as playful and mischievous as ever, playing their "tease-me-and-I-will-tease-you-back" game. Robin and Marian are adorable when they are embroiled in an argument and tease one another! It was a sheer pleasure for me to write the easy banter between the two of them. They talk about some important things which happened in their lives and became the trials for their love. Some insight is given into their lives before Robin's departure to the Crusade and into their relationship throughout the show._

 _Marian is no longer a maid. Maybe I romanticized and even idealized Marian and Robin's love a little bit, but I wanted to portray their feelings for each other as a deep, pure, sincere, and great love that transcends time, distance, and ages – their love epic in this AU. I tried to describe Marian's first time with Robin romantically, sensitively, also giving some "lascivious" details and using poetical comparisons and metaphors (it is my typical style). My headcanon is that Marian and Robin become lovers between the episodes "Lardner's Ring" and "Walkabout", but in this AU they weren't lovers before the disastrous voyage to Acre. The happy spouses consummate their marriage in a few days after her return._

 _Thank you for reading his story. I would be very grateful for reviews._

 _Your sincerely, Penelope Clemence_


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